NOVEMBER 16, 2001

Alesi agrees to race DTM Mercedes next season

JEAN ALESI has firmly agreed to drive an AMG Mercedes CLK in next year's DTM touring car series, a decision which will give a huge boost to the already extremely popular championship which has been won for the past two seasons by former Zakspeed-Yamaha F1 driver Bernd Schneider. Alesi confirmed that he was definitely going to drive in the series when he visited England yesterday for Ken Tyrrell's memorial service at Guildford cathedral. "No firm announcement will be made for some time," he said, "but Norbert Haug generously invited me and I am pleased to accept. With over 450 horsepower they are great drivers' cars as I discovered during my test in one at Hockenheim recently."